Panda Express to open on 15th Street next month

Panda Express, a quick-service Chinese restaurant chain, will open its first restaurant in West Alabama in late December.

By Patrick RupinskiBusiness Editor | The Tuscaloosa News

Panda Express, a quick-service Chinese restaurant chain, will open its first restaurant in West Alabama in late December.The free-standing restaurant has been built at 636 15th St., Tuscaloosa, and is scheduled to open around Dec. 23, pending final approvals by city inspectors, said Juliam Lee, associate manager of communications for Panda Restaurant Group.Panda Express, based in Rosemead, Calif., has more than 1,600 locations in 42 states and is aggressively seeking new locations for additional restaurants, according to its website.The Tuscaloosa restaurant will be the fourth Panda Express in Alabama, according to the website, which showed its other restaurants in the state as being in Huntsville, Auburn and Madison.Panda Express was started in southern California in 1983 as a new dining concept of Panda Inn, a casual-dining Chinese restaurant that specializes in Mandarin and Szechwan cuisine. Panda Inn still operates six restaurants in the Los Angeles area. Both Panda Express and Panda Inn are part of the Panda Restaurant Group, a family-owned company. All of its restaurants are company operated.Lee said in an email that Panda Express' signature entree is Orange Chicken — lightly battered and fried pieces of chicken that are sauteed in sweet and mildly spicy chili sauce. She said the dish remains the chain's most popular, but the restaurant features other entrees, which can be ordered in bowls, plates with two or three entrees or ala carte.Among those entrees are Beijing Beef, SweetFire Chicken Breast, Honey Walnut Shrimp and Shanghai Angus Steak. The menu features chicken, beef, shrimp and vegetarian dishes and traditional Chinese appetizers.

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